Max Rychner (8 April 1897 in

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, Switzerland – 10 June 1965 in Zurich) - was a

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writer, journalist, translator, and literary critic, writing in

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called him " e of the most educated and subtle figures in the intellectual life of the era" Rychner published several books of poetry, short stories, essays, and autobiographical prose, and translated some of the works of

Paul Valéry Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry (; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, mu ...

into German. For several decades, he was one of the most influential literary critics and reviewers writing in German. He admired, promoted, and published the works of Robert Walser, and corresponded with

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-cla ...

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn (2 May 1886 – 7 July 1956) was a German poet, essayist, and physician. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature five times. He was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1951. Biography and work Family and beginnings Go ...

Ernst Robert Curtius Ernst Robert Curtius (; 14 April 1886 – 19 April 1956) was a German literary scholar, philologist, and Romance language literary critic, best known for his 1948 study ''Europäische Literatur und Lateinisches Mittelalter'', translated in Eng ...

, and others. He championed the young poet Paul Celan and published the memoirs of

Walter Benjamin Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist. An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewi ...

. In 1956, Rychner won the Gottfried Keller Award.

Published works

*Bei mir laufen Fäden zusammen. Literarische Aufsätze, Kritiken, Briefe. Literarische Aufsätze, Kritiken, Briefe. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1998 Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1998

References

* *Bedachte und bezeugte Welt: Prosa, Gedichte, Aphorismen, Aufsätze. Max Rychner zum 65. Geburtstag. Darmstadt; Hamburg: Schröder, 1962. *Leśniak S. Thomas Mann, Max Rychner, Hugo von Hofmannsthal und Rudolf Kassner: eine Typologie essayistischer Formen. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2005. *Buss M. Intellektuelles Selbstverständnis und Totalitarismus: Denis de Rougemont und Max Rychner, zwei Europäer der Zwischenkriegszeit. Frankfurt/Main: P. Lang, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rychner, Max Swiss literary critics Swiss translators Swiss essayists Swiss male poets 1897 births 1965 deaths Writers from Zürich 20th-century Swiss poets 20th-century male writers 20th-century translators Male essayists 20th-century essayists 20th-century Swiss journalists